My Spirituals

My Spirituals is a collection of 16 Spiritual arrangements for voice and piano by Eva Jessye. Published in 1927, each score in this compilation is prefaced with a personal story by Jessye about someone from her childhood who she associates with that particular tune. In the book's preface, Jessye writes, "Neither is this a story of the quaint folk among whom I was born and the melody that poured from their untutored lips. It is simply a recording of some songs I grew up with...Collecting these songs has not been a difficult task. I was not obliged to delve in remote corners of the South or coax them from reluctant elders. They are the songs of my childhood and of my own people. I have sung them all my life.”